Tools and Trade Secrets for Aspiring Writers
During my time at the San Francisco Writers Conference weekend before last, I learned about a most interesting website for any writer who has published a book. It’s called simply BookTour. Here’s a snippet of the site creator’s description:
BookTour.com was founded in late 2006 by three authors who were also avid readers and [...]
This post was previously published in UK magaine Writer’s Forum, in its December issue. I appreciate the permission to post my article here, particularly as it is relevant to my on-going series about tracking one’s time.
As a youth, I was never an athlete. Breaking into sweat, for me, was a near-death [...]
More discoveries from my periodic online romp through StumbleUpon, an extremely useful facility which I recommend to anyone who likes online exploration. StumbleUpon asks users to identity their interests. Then it lines up recommendations from all of its participants and passes on favorite sites on subjects you like, one at a time. [...]
Yesterday, I wrote about the minimalist word processor DarkRoom. Of course, Microsoft Word users think their software can do absolutely anything. In fact, sometimes I think they may be right.
Word can, in fact, be fooled into behaving somewhat like DarkRoom. So, if you’ve already paid your hundreds of dollars, you may wish [...]
As it happens, I have been thinking about various clipboard replacements over the past few days, even before the ClipMate discount offer arrived in my inbox this morning.
PC Utilities Magazine [one of my favorites, published in UK but available on US newsstands and by subscription] offered several clipboard programs on a DVD that came with [...]
Microsoft’s “clipboard” facility is truly lame. As a writer, I find myself often going through extra steps to move clips around in a useful form and have wished for a better application.
I’ve known about ClipMate for a long time, but have been unwilling to shell out $34.95 for it. Today only, the program [...]
It’s been on my To-Do List forever, it seems. From time to time, I’ve run into references to the Mac software WriteRoom, and an effort or two to duplicate this software’s functionality for the PC. After reading How to Write Without Distractions at Write to Done, I decided finally to take a look. [...]
Do you have a minute for a bit of silliness that will entertain and perhaps challenge writers? Take a look at the new website One Sentence, which challenges visitors to write a story in one sentence. A novel idea, which has produced some very creative responses.
I am reminded of something I wrote almost [...]
In my last post in this series, I pointed out that Slim Timer works only when one is online. It cannot monitor time spent offline. In my own case, that makes that facility, as well-designed as it is, irrelevant.
This is an issue much under discussion regarding many of the new online applications. [...]
In a sign that audio books do indeed have a good future, Amazon has announced its purchase of Audible, an online provider of downloadable audio books. Audible’s technology allows for books to be downloaded into iPods and other portable players. This is a distribution channel that authors should keep in mind.
Details of the [...]